14 DAY TRIAL // A female anteater living at a conservation center in Connecticut must now be held accountable for making several zookeepers and wildlife researchers scratch their heads and tip their hats to Mother Nature's miracles.
Long story short: this female anteater, named Armani, has recently given birth despite its having been separated from its mate for nearly a year and a half.
Specialists explain that the gestation period for anteaters is one of 6 months, which is why they find it fairly difficult to explain how a female which has not been around a male for such a long time has managed to get pregnant, carry the pregnancy to term, and deliver its baby.
According to Daily Mail, the decision to separate Armani and its mate, Alfie, was taken when the couple succeeded in having one other baby, a female anteater named Alice.
At that time, zookeepers feared that Alfie might harm Alice, and saw fit to separate the family.
Thus, the male anteater was place in another enclosure, while Armani and Alice were allowed to go on living together.
The same source informs us that Archie, Armani's new baby, was born this past April.
Specialists suspect that, rather than this being a case of immaculate anteater conception, Archie's birth is no more and no less than a rare case of delayed implantation.
What they mean is that an egg fertilized by Alfie somehow remained dormant inside Armani's uterus for several months in a row.
When environmental conditions were favorable, the egg turned into an embryo and later on into a baby anteater.
Spokespersons for the LEO Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich say that both Armani and Archie find themselves in perfectly good health.
Interestingly enough, it appears that such cases of Immaculate Conception have also been reported in sloths and armadillos.
Both these species belong to the same suborder as anteaters (i.e. Vermilingua), which is why the assumption that this was in fact a case of delayed pregnancy might be accurate.